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As mentioned in the introduction, I’ve been fascinated with aircraft since my early teens. I’d watch the aircraft come and go from Glasgow, and Concorde crew training out of Prestwick. At Leuchars airshow in 1994 I even got to see my favourite in action, the immortal F-4 Phantom II. It was always the machines that captivated me.

However, the early nineties introduced me to another machine, the IBM PC-AT. The first software package I purchased was Microsoft Flight Simulator 4. It was not exactly a graphical masterpiece, and with hindsight, the flight dynamics were “iffy”, but that didn’t matter – I was in control. Everything changed from that point on.

I realised that being in command of the machines would be much better than simply looking on. I imagined the Concorde crews at Prestwick, walking out the their new steed for the first time, stopping to admire her, before making their way to the flight deck. I wondered if everytime they looked at their aircraft, they looked at her as I looked? I wondered too if I would ever know that feeling?

That’s how the next 11 years were spent. Watching aircraft, flying FlightSim and daydreaming. (And not studying for Exams mixed in for good measure).

I watched the cost of PPL training in magazine adverts increase slowly – just enough to keep it out of reach for another year.

I watched with great sadness as Concorde was withdrawn from service – it seemed at that point my flying dreams, like my inspiration, were grounded.

Was Flight Simulator as close as I would get to flying a real aircraft?

Continue to Airborne at last